Texas Tech announced Monday afternoon that it has suspended head football coach Mike Leach after receiving a complaint from a player and his parents about how the player was treated after an injury.
Tech did not release details, but ESPN.com reported that the player is Adam James, a redshirt sophomore wide receiver and the son of ESPN analyst Craig James.
"Mr. and Mrs. James took the step with great regret and after consideration and prayer to convey to the Texas Tech administration that their son had been subjected to actions and treatment not consistent with common sense rules for safety and health," the family said in a statement released Monday and posted on ESPN.com.
ESPN reported that sources have told Joe Schad, its college football reporter, that the parents accused Leach of isolating James in an equipment room and later an electrical closet after he suffered a mild concussion and could not practice.
Leach did not immediately return a call or a text message from The Associated Press seeking comment.
"At Texas Tech, all such complaints are considered as serious matters, and as a result, an investigation of the incident is under way," the university said in a statement.
Assistant head coach Ruffin McNeill, Leach's defensive coordinator, will coach the Red Raiders at Saturday's Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. Tech, 8-4, will take on Michigan State, 6-6.
The school said several people were involved in the decision, including university President Guy Bailey, Chancellor Kent Hance and the chairman and vice chairman of the Board of Regents.
"Because this is a personnel matter, no further comment will be forthcoming," the statement said.
The statement released to the media did not indicate whether Leach’s suspension will carry beyond the Alamo Bowl, or if any other action will be levied.
Last month, after Kansas coach Mark Mangino was accused of being abusive to players, Leach came to his defense:
"Nobody truly knows what went on in Kansas,'' Leach said during a Big 12 teleconference. "But my suspicion is, Mark's in the middle of a witch hunt, which is unjustified.
"Heaven forbid somebody should ask the guys to pay attention and focus in, and for the sake of all his teammates and coaches and everybody else, pay attention.
"Well, there's different ways to ask a guy to do that, and sometimes after you've asked him a number of times, you raise the bar.''
Leach had to "raise the bar'' after spring practice started earlier this year when he forced receiver Edward Britton to sit in a chair at midfield and do his homework, because he had fallen behind.
"The interesting thing to me is all the (reports) went from (Mangino) hit some guy in the face to, well, he didn't even touch anybody, but he did say mean things to them,'' Leach said. "A mean man told some players something he didn't want to hear.
"Well, there's a mean man in Lubbock who tells people stuff they don't want to hear, too, and that's part of it.''
Mangino, who coached with Leach at Oklahoma, later resigned.
Leach is in his 10th season as head coach in Lubbock. He has taken the Red Raiders to bowl games every year since his arrival in 2000.
There's been internal strife this season with the Red Raiders, and Leach has resorted to some tongue-lashing.
He chastised players after a loss to Texas A&M in October for listening to "their fat little girlfriends," and thinking the Aggies were a pushover.
And after the Red Raiders' loss at then-No. 12 Houston in September, Leach suspended indefinitely starting offensive lineman Brandon Carter for violating team rules.
The loss to the Cougars was the second straight for the Red Raiders, who had fallen 34-24 at No. 2 Texas in an early Big 12 matchup. This season is the first since 2002 — Leach's third season — that the Red Raiders dropped two of their first four games.
That same week Leach banned his players from having Twitter pages after linebacker Marlon Williams asked on his account why he was still in a meeting room when "the head coach can't even be on time."
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